Casio G'zOne Commando hands-on!

Our friendly FedEx man was kind enough to deliver us the soon-to-be-released Casio G’zOne Commando from Verizon Wireless. Unlike most full-touchscreen smartphones, this Android 2.2.1 device is designed to be abused. The Commando meets military standards 810G for immersion, rain, and shock, dust resistance, vibration, salt fog, humidity, solar radiation, altitude, along with low and high temperature storage. The handset, which is not the lightest full-touchscreen we’ve handled — but certainly not the heaviest at 5.4-ounces— sports a ruggedized composite case which protects a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, 1460mAh battery, 512MB RAM, 3.6-inch WVGA touchscreen display, and a host of other assets. Want to know what our first impressions are? Good. Have a look at the gallery below and hit the jump to read on.

The first thing we noticed about the device is how crisp the screen is. With ruggedized anythings, function is oft sacrificed for the sake of form. But with the Commando’s screen this does not appear to be the case. The 3.6-inch window has a 480 x 800 pixel resolution and, from what we can tell so far, doesn’t disappoint. Blacks are very black and the touch sensitivity seems to be on-par with most other Android devices — we fired off several emails and text messages without issue.

The exterior of the Commando is well accented with red composite inlays that compliment the phone’s drop-me-I-dare-you physique quite nicely. The phone has no fewer than five physical buttons on its left and right sides and we’re not sure how we feel about that — we seem to always hit a button when picking up the phone. We’ll wait to levy judgement on this design choice in our full review.

The Commando is running a slightly modded version of Android 2.2.1, but we don’t think even the most devout Android purists will mind. The modifications, for the most part, add a more ruggedized look to things — like the dialer and homescreen — and, thus far, have stayed out of the way.

We’ve ripped off a few test pictures with the device’s 5 megapixel shooter and so far the results have been favorable. The handful of close range and landscape shots we’ve taken appear to be very clean and there doesn’t seem to be anything glaringly wrong with the Commando’s camera.

The handset also support Wi-Fi hotspot creation, which, again, provides those needing a phone that can survive the elements with a nice blend or form and function.

Those are most of our initial musings. We plan to take this handset out on the mean streets of Boston and drive it like it’s stolen — it is a rental after all — and we’ll be sure to bring you are full writeup ASAP.

Nice machine, hoping for a EU frequencies release. Perfect for my hiking and biking and general butterfingerness.

Anonymous

Does anyone know what kind/speed processor this thing has in it? I can’t seem to find that information anywhere.

Mosin

It is a 800mhz processor, but it seems pretty snappy to begin with

Anonymous

Thanks!

Mosin

no problem, anything to help

http://twitter.com/cryogenic Kevin

I kinda like this thing, actually. Whereas it seems with most Android phones you have to treat them rather gently, this thing doesn’t seem like it would mind being tossed around one bit. Not just for the construction worker types out there; also perfect for hikers, cyclists, people with severe cases of butterfingers, habitual drunks, and maybe even the absent-minded folk who leave their phone sitting on the trunk of their car and drive off on occasion!

Anonymous

“Not just for the construction worker types out there;”

Level headed average Joes will get this as well.Probably future vers with better specs, 4″ screen and over 1500mAh batts.

The way my gf (example) handle her BB Bold by simply tossing it into her tote all messed up with you name it womens’ essentials in there along with the occasional rogue eyelash and nail clippers gave that thing enough physical torture.Precisely the 2nd reason why I stopped her from getting an iPhone.**ahem** I trust some of you here are curious about the 1st reason but I digress.

….then she’d complain about screen protectors and cases….

Tough military standard smartphones should be the way forward for mobile comms’ future.Not just hexacore SoCs and built in mega teraflops GPU.

It’s getting rougher out there.

http://profiles.google.com/jeffpom Jeff Pommerening

FYI: Your headline is wrong with the name. It’s G’zOne you have the apostrophe in wrong place. Apparently it’s actually pronounced “Geez One” (Not “G Zone” like I thought all these years! LOL)

Tyson

It’s actually pronounced GeeZee’ One (G, Z, One)

serpentor

I’d like to see the salesperson try to sell equipment protection with this.

Love the rugged look and function.

EZ

Can you guys put it in water for 10 seconds take it out and make a phone call? I wana c someone test some of it claims, like immersion

Aj_rimmer

Can you use GPS without signing up for VZ Navigator?

Techee44

Yes. You can use the standard Android navigation app.

http://twitter.com/palfrei Peter Palfrei

“The exterior of the Commando is well accented with red composite inlays that compliment the phones ‘drop-me-I-dare-you’ physique”

;)

kaphlux

Any news if this is going to be available in a camera-less version?

Anonymous

So no Motoblur?

QHamilton11

My wife is the destroyer of phones. She seems to break one every 3 months. This may be the perfect mother’s day gift. She can also stop flirting with the Verizon rep to get a new phone.

QHamilton11

My wife is the destroyer of phones. She seems to break one every 3 months. This may be the perfect mother’s day gift. She can also stop flirting with the Verizon rep to get a new phone.

Technojeff

Dieing to get this one but won’t until I see a review or two… Whats the hold up?
VZW took away the yearly option I used to use and made it two years now. If Im going to have to wait two years for a new phone I want it to last!

Haniff Warru

i’m so interested with this handset. is there any information wehre can i buy it in asia and africa? or maybe on online shop?